Here are some rules, some guidelines, and some frequently (meaning at least once) asked questions about The Board. All registered users are assumed to be familiar with these rules and are expected to follow them. So it behooves you to read them! We will update these rules occasionally as the need arises, and when we do, we will be sure to let everyone know that they have been updated.

<b>RULES:</b>
<ol><li>Criticism of moderators or other board members IS allowed, as long as it conforms to the following specific rules AND all other rules listed anywhere in this post:
<ol><li>Criticism must be reasonable and avoid personal attacks. Be respectful of other board members.</li>
<li>Profanity is not allowed. The moderators' mother is a regular here, for crying out loud. Keep it clean.</li>
<li>Included in the ban on profanity is a ban on graphic depictions of potentially offensive or uncomfortable topics, whether or not they actually have cuss words in them.</li></ol></li>
<li>Don't flood the board with pointless messages. That includes back-and-forth, one-sentence conversations between two or three people that aren't relevant to the general readership. Before posting, think: Is this part of the topic at hand, or would this be better expressed in a private message or e-mail directly to a certain person?</li>
<li>Here are the rules regarding religious discussions:
<ol><li>Religious topics, be they Mormon or otherwise, cultural or doctrinal, should be maintained in the Religion forum. That doesn't mean you can't mention anything pertaining to religion in the other forums; just that if the thread is MAINLY about religion, it should be over there.</li>
<li>Bashing of any particular religion or church is strictly prohibited.</li>
<li>Keeping in mind that the owners of this board are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, members of the board, LDS or not, will not be allowed to post things that show disrespect towards that church or its doctrines. There are many other Web sites where that sort of thing can be done; this isn't one of them. It may seem like a double standard to have a harsher rule for one church than another, but that's because it IS a double standard. It's our board, we get to make the rules. Having your own message board is awesome like that.</li>
<li>Anyone who disagrees with these policies (or the way these policies are enforced) is welcome to contact either moderator in private. Posting messages disagreeing with the policies is not allowed, simply because it clutters the board (and, frankly, because these are pretty basic rules, and we're not likely to change our minds about them). It's not because we want to prevent public criticism. Heck, send e-mails disparaging our policies to everyone you want. Just don't take up board space with it, you know?</li>
<li>Even within the Religion Forum, remember that not everyone reading your posts is the same religion as you, nor do they necessarily share your beliefs. In fact, most of them are not and do not. (There are dozens and dozens of people who read the board regularly but never post anything.) So don't post messages about particularly deep spiritual experiences, or dealing with doctrines or practices that would seem weird or confusing to an average person. Things relating to the LDS temple, including undergarments, would be a good example of this. Again, there are plenty of sites specifically FOR Mormons or other religious persuasions, where you can talk about deep stuff all you want without having to worry about what other readers will think. This is not one of those sites.</ol></li>
<li>One personality to a customer: If you post under multiple usernames, one or all of them will be banned. (The "one or all" distinction will usually boil down to how much the moderators like you.)</li>
<li>Avatars (the little picture that shows up under your name when you post), if used, must be no wider than 125 pixels. There is no strict limit on height, but if it throws off the flow of the page or annoys us, we might remove it or ask you to change it. And it has to conform to the standards of decency, of course. Posting an indecent avatar, especially if you have been warned before about matters of decency, is a bannable offense.</li>
<li>Pointless bickering between board members is not allowed. Specifically:
<ol><li>As mentioned above, disagreements and criticism are allowed. Pointless bickering is not. In general, what we consider "pointless bickering" is when it is evident that you are taking issue with a person, and not with a specific statement the person made.</li>
<li>If you have an issue with another board member, be very careful before you bring it up publicly. Most of the time, the better solution is to either approach the problem privately, or to simply get over it. Always remember the most important lesson anyone ever learned: The Internet is not real life!</li></ol></li>
<li>People who join the board just to promote their merchandise, Web sites, or other endeavors will be banned and have their posts either deleted or mocked (or both). Other members of the board -- you know, people who joined because they wanted to have discussions, who have posted messages in different threads, stuff like that -- they're welcome to promote their endeavors all they want.</li>
<li>Please remember that this message board should be enjoyable for everyone, and that is why we have rules. If you don't think that hanging out at a message board with these rules sounds fun, do everyone a favor and go somewhere else -- no hard feelings, friend! If your goal is to have intelligent, sometimes funny, sometimes serious, always respectful discussions about a wide variety of topics in an atmosphere that is clean and open, then this is the place for you.</li></ol>

<b>GUIDELINES:</b>
<ol><li>Be careful before criticizing someone's spelling or grammar. Everyone makes typos now and then. It's especially tempting to jump on poor grammar and spelling when the offender is saying something stupid anyway. But in those situations, it's best to let the content speak for itself.</li>
<li>The flip side of that last guideline is this: Try to use good spelling and grammar. No one is perfect, but if you want to be taken seriously, it is important to make it evident that you actually put thought into what you're saying.</li>
<li>If you are posting a link that is somewhat long, please use a short, descriptive phrase and link the text, rather than including the entire link. It may not seem like a big deal, but the board has a fixed width of a little less than 800 pixels, so long links will mess up the flow of the page.

HTML version (yes, this works on this board):
<a href="http://www.linkhere.com">Short descriptive phrase</a></li></ol>

<b>FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ):</b>
<dl><dt>Where did this board come from?</dt><dd>This board originated as the Eric D. Snider Message Board, and it was located on the www.ericdsnider.com domain. On September 17, 2006, the board was moved to http://board.jeffjsnider.com/. For a discussion of the reasons for the move, see <a href="http://board.jeffjsnider.com/viewtopic.php?t=3801">this thread</a>.</dd>
<dt>Is this a "Mormon" message board?</dt><dd>No, this message board has no religious affiliation, and members of all religions (or no religion) are welcome. Jeff and Eric, who own the board, are LDS, and Eric first developed a following when he was writing for the newspaper at Brigham Young University. So most of his fans then were LDS, and he still has a following in certain Mormon circles. However, in recent months Eric's most widely read work has been his movie reviews, linked from Rotten Tomatoes and other sites -- which means the average person stumbling upon this site is no more likely to be LDS than the average person on the street is. We suspect a majority of visitors to the site are not LDS, and we invite one and all to take part in the message board.</dd></dl>

More updates today, December 2, 2005. The content is mostly the same, but we have changed some of the wording to have less of a "moderators vs. everyone else" sort of feel. Eric and I are the moderators, yes, but we are also members of the board, and we felt like we might come across too heavy-handedly sometimes. We changed the rules to reflect our goal of a fun, laid back message board where everyone feels welcome and people respect each other.